The polar opposite of Rich Kids.
Less people care about poor children than rich children. In many ways they are an invisible demographic that does not exist. This is evident not only thru the number of definitions of Rich Kids compared to Poor Kids, but the way they are treated.

Very few television shows appeal to poor kids, even Hip Hop shows and shows on BET for the most part appeal to the rich or middle class. Whenever a movie is made that shows the realities of there everyday life, instead of being labeled a movie, like say any of the millions of videos that appeal to middle or rich America. It is labeled a Hood Classic, or Black Cinema (EX: Boyz-N-The Hood, Paid in Full, etc.) This of course does not happen if the main character happens to be an adult white male playing Saviour to some kids in the hood (Hardball). Those are considered actual movies because rich people can relate to momentarily feeling sorry for the children on the TV screen, and may cry. Not realizing millions upon millions of children in the US, a silent majority are raised in similar conditions.

Many people think being a poor kid in America is something usually reserved for white trash and minorities however, there are more poor white children in the US, than there is black children al-together. However, with American Media comprising mostly of movies and shows about rich white people, and poor black people, many people think that all whites are rich, there are millions of poor white children who are not white trash, but there story is never told, because if they don't have 3 teeth, or live in a mansion its not good enough to get on the air.

Many Poor kids, will develop into poor teenagers.
Lack of parenting (Most poor kids are bastards living in single mother households where there mother is either too depressed, too busy paying rent, or too busy smoking crack to help them.)
With this begins the cycle. Tommy was never taught anything. He learned it by himself. There was never a daddy to throw him a ball, and his mother is a crackhead. He has probably moved many times, moving from one run down slum to another. Does not know what economic stability is, and has never held more than $10 in his hand at one time. The only real role model he has is the man on the corner at 3AM selling crack, because he is rich, and drives a nice car.

Many poor kids once developed into poor teenagers will do what they have to do to pay the rent and keep themselves alive. sell drugs. In there community this is the only way to survive. If you are weak, you get hurt.

Education has no real use to the urban poor, because if you don't have street education or knowledge you can't possibly survive in such an environment. Law enforcement targets them because they are easier to incarcerate than rich kids, and when they are locked up all there processions can easily be repo'ed and than sold at auctions for the departments benefit.
Such cannot be done with rich kids because they have many powerful and influential family members to back them up. The court system is skewed to also work against the poor. 9/10 times if a rich kid gets caught with crack it won't go to trial, and if it does, he wont be convicted, and if he does it will be a minor sentence.

However, if your from the projects and you get caught with crack, they are throwing the books at you, and you can expect to live the next 20 years of your life locked up in a cage.

Go ahead. Explain to the judge that you were selling it because you needed money to feed your brothers and sisters and you owed a man $200 and if you didn't pay him he was going to kill you, and now sense you got caught and had to snitch to reduce your life sentance they are going to rape your mother and beat your siblings. He won't care. Hes a former rich kid and now a rich man. So is everyone else in the courtroom, and you in there eyes are below human. The sooner they get you locked in a cell than report how terrible you are on the news. The bigger there check is, and the better they look. However, if you are a rich kid you can just say you were experimenting, or Rap Music told you to do it with much sympathy from the courtroom, your parents, and channel 8 news later on in the night.

It has become popular for rich kids and suburbanites to begin thinking they are "hood", and acting poor.
As much as rich kids have, many of them are morans, and are very immature. By the time a poor kid is 12 he will have experienced much more pain and sorrow than a rich kid will in his whole entire life. With this comes the wisdom of an old man. I know many 15 year olds who have the perception of a 50 year old war veteran. However, they are the ones portrayed as being stupid just because of there accents and slang, not actual intellect. This makes sense because rich kids parents love to feed there children the thoughts that they are the best and brightest. A poor kid has to see himself as he actually is and see others for who they really are, just to survive and replicate. Also many wealthy Americans secretly look down on poor people and think of them as trash, so it makes sense in there mind to figure all poor people are stupid and there children are geniuses because they were born with a silver spoon shoved up there ass.

So if you are a rich kid. Be happy, and don't try to be a poor kid. Every poor kids dream is to be rich, and not have to worry constantly about survival. You really have no idea what it is like, and no damn article on this website could really explain to you what its like.

However, if you do insist on pretending to be poor, do it around your other rich friends, because most poor kids from the hood have very acute social senses, are able to see who is real and who is phony and were bathed in street knowledge, and the art of war while you were being taken to soccer practice.

Thats why they say if you aint from the ghetto, don't come to the fucking ghetto. Rich folks have a position of power on TV, in the news, and control the world, but when you come to where we live. You enter the world that we control. We have very little, but that which we do have, we are ready and willing to die and kill for. We are mad at your people for constantly oppressing us in every way. So we will rob, or shoot you. Because we don't like you Rich Kid. You opress us by giving us shitty education, shitty housing, bitching about us, talking shit about us, never talking about our struggles, but obsessing over yours, and locking most of our loved ones in cages just for trying to escape.

Wow, Tommy is a poor kid.
I feel so bad for him. He lives on the 7th floor of his project building and has to walk up 14 dark flights of stairs dodging crackheads and running from rapists to get to his rat infested unit, where he sits on the floor and burns roaches with his moms lighter she uses to light her pipe for entertainment.
I'm mad at BET for glamorizing this mess. If only those rich kids knew how bad it really was for these poor kids.

-If you have both parents living with you who have jobs, you are NOT a poor kid.